DMV'S HOLIDAY OPENINGS MAKE SENSE

THE HARTFORD COURANT

A plea to the state Department of Motor Vehicles: Don't back away from your tentative plan to keep 11 branch offices open on three state holidays -- Lincoln's Birthday, Columbus Day and Veterans Day -- beginning next year.

The reasoning is sound. Keeping DMV offices open on those holidays would improve service to the public. The department's schedule would more closely follow the hours of private businesses. What could possibly be wrong with a change in policy that makes government more convenient for the people it serves?

Motor Vehicles gets a lot of customers. It should be open more hours than it is now.

However, leaders of veterans' groups say that the holiday opening would be a slap in the face of those who served their country. State Sen. Biagio "Billy" Ciotto, a retired DMV employee, said he'll do everything he can to reverse the proposed change. He claims that keeping the DMV open on Veterans Day would be "sacrilegious."

It would be no such thing. It's hard to imagine a country where veterans get more benefits, preferences and respect than they do in the United States, and properly so. DMV's new holiday openings would change none of that. It would make government more accessible to the people it serves.